If you’ve repeatedly experienced difficulty communicating with your landscape maintenance company, you may have found yourself wishing you had something like a personal gardener to oversee the care of your entire property. But you wonder if your landscape warrants that level of detailed care.
The fact is, most companies do a good job of basic yard maintenance, mowing, trimming, weeding, etc. But if you’ve made a substantial investment in your landscaping and have installed specimen plants and trees, it is worth it to work with a landscape company that offers personnel who are knowledgeable in horticulture and provide garden care services tailored to your specific needs.
Investing in a Personalized Garden Care Program
If yours is more than a “basic” landscape, basic services won’t be enough to bring out its potential. Routine seasonal tasks can be performed according to a prescribed schedule, but a company that provides a “personal gardener” approach is going to set priorities when they arrive at your home for scheduled visits. They prioritize tasks to be done based on what they see and add those to the list. That’s the part of the work that can’t be planned in advance.
You need knowledgeable caretakers who are always taking note of changes in the landscape because the landscape does not stand still. Each year brings changes and the landscape company must work with the environment to “manage” the property for success.
It helps to deal with a dedicated garden care professional whose company has the resources to proactively manage your entire property including the landscape mechanical systems as well as plant systems.
The Next Level: Fine Gardening Technique
Every garden requires maintenance. And a good maintenance company will do the necessary scheduled tasks. They’ll reliably check all the boxes for mowing, edging, weeding, etc–and leave. A company that brings a “personal gardener” mindset to the job extends garden care services well beyond the basic requirements. They employ fine gardening techniques as needed to fulfill the vision of the original landscape design and bring out its full potential.
This type of service is holistic garden management: One pair of eyes is on your property keeping watch over the inter-dependent structural, mechanical, and horticultural portions of it.
Planning Enhancements with a Personal Gardener
A personal gardener is a landscaping professional who is able to tune into a client’s preferences, educate them about plants, help them to articulate their vision and unlock their aesthetic desires. The ideal personal gardener is someone who thinks like a garden designer: part scientist and part artist.
Having a personal gardener is a relationship based on trust. Once they’ve clearly established what the customer likes, doesn’t like, and most importantly what they wish for, a dedicated garden care expert can suggest changes or improvements based on that input.
You may want to introduce garden design features that will attract butterflies and bees. You may want to add edibles to your landscape with an herb garden, fruit trees, or vegetable garden. A personal gardener will help you cultivate the garden you want–not the one an “expert” thinks you should have.
When to Hire a Landscape Company with a Personal Gardener Approach
Sometimes, when a property changes hands, the new owner may dislike and want to change some characteristics that the previous owner loved. This is not at all uncommon because aesthetic preferences are based on feelings. Another common scenario is the homeowner who has grown dissatisfied with their landscape after a number of years. The gardener will ask: what do you see first when you come home? what would you like to see that isn’t there? and what is the feeling you are reaching for? They will try to help you identify what has changed that has caused your garden to lose its former appeal.
Over the years as the relationship between a personal gardener and client strengthens, it becomes easy to talk about and experiment with new things in the landscape. This is when it becomes really fun for both parties. Maintaining a landscape and caring for gardens is an exciting journey that doesn’t have an end.
Are you wondering how to bring out the fullest expression in your landscape and gardens? Our eBook: Choosing the Right Kind of Landscape Maintenance Firm, is full of valuable information to help you understand the fundamental differences between landscape maintenance companies.